RCom in a communication to the stock exchanges said: "Samena Capital, in a proposed consortium with certain other global PE funds, is at an advanced stage of the process of due diligence and completion of definitive documents in relation to the acquisition of Reliance Globalcom Ltd, our global communications services business unit."

The deal is likely to conclude by May-end.

Reliance Globalcom was previously in talks with Bahrain Telecom (Batelco). Sources said the PE consortium has been preferred as it was offering better price and faster execution of the deal, which may be $1 billion to 1.2 billion in size.

"At this point, there can be no certainty that this will lead to a transaction. A further announcement will be made in due course, if and when appropriate," the statement said.

"RCom and Samena Capital are no longer in discussions with Batelco for the purposes of the above transaction," it added.